Najib: Lim's accusations politically driven

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed that the failure of the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to repay the overpayment of taxes is influenced by various factors.

The former Prime Minister said Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, had accused the Barisan Nasional (BN) government of failing to return the overpayment of property tax and overpaid tax of RM16.046 billion is untrue and is politically motivated.

He said until now Lim has yet lodged reports on various charges he made claim to, because making a false police report is unlawful.

“There are many reasons why IRB cannot repay, including workers’ issues, foreign companies that are no longer located or operating in the country, and companies that are closed or undetectable.

“In fact, the use of the set-off for tax credit is not uncommon. In fact it’s often used in this country and abroad.”

“The government collects income taxes of RM130 billion annually, and in accordance with the final statement as of 2017, issued by the Accountant-General of Malaysia, the Malaysian government has RM18 billion cash (including RM8.9 billion in hand and RM7.7 billion million in a fixed deposit account),”he said in a statement posted on his Facebook today.

Najib advised the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) for both the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other tax issues immediately because it involved RM35 billion in government funds.

He said this was to find the truth in ascertaining whether BN, the Customs Department and LHDN had committed a breach of trust, or is it a matter of the PH government just continuing their political game.

“I want to state clearly that following the tax exception and the lack of earnings every month after the abolition of the GST - replaced with Sales and Service Tax (SST) - has resulted in the government losing revenue of RM31 billion.

“It is likely that after three and a half months, Lim just realised that the ‘tax holiday’ and transfer from GST to SST were wrong decisions.”